This invention relates to fire resistant fabric materials comprising a substrate having an ionic charge coated with a coating having essentially the same charge and consisting essentially of a filler material and a binder material. The filler material includes clay.
For many years substrates such as fiberglass have been coated with various compositions to produce materials having utility in, among other applications, the building industry. U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,005 relates to structural laminates made with facing sheets. The laminates described in that patent include thermosetting plastic foam and have planar facing sheets comprising 60% to 90% by weight glass fibers (exclusive of glass micro-fibers), 10% to 40% by weight non-glass filler material and 1% to 30% by weight non-asphaltic binder material. The filler materials are indicated as being clay, mica, talc, limestone (calcium carbonate), gypsum (calcium sulfate), aluminum trihydrate (ATH), antimony trioxide, cellulose fibers, plastic polymer fibers or a combination of any two or more of those substances. The patent further notes that the filler materials are bonded to the glass fibers using binders such as urea-, phenol- or melamine-formaldehyde resins (UF, PF, and MF resins), or a modified acrylic or polyester resin. Ordinary polymer latexes used according to the disclosure are Styrene-Butadiene-Rubber (SBR), Ethylene-Vinyl-Chloride (EVCl), PolyVinylidene Chloride (PvdC), modified PolyVinyl Chloride (PVC), PolyVinyl Alcohol (PVOH), and PolyVinyl Acetate (PVA). The glass fibers, non-glass filler material and non-asphaltic binder are all mixed together to form the facer sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,032 discloses an acrylic coating comprised of one acrylic underlying resin which includes fly ash and an overlying acrylic resin which differs from the underlying resin.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,329 discloses a fire retardant coating composition comprising fly ash and vinyl acrylic polymer emulsion. The fly ash is 24 to 50% of the composition. The composition may also preferably contain one or more of a dispersant, a defoamer, a plasticizer, a thickener, a drying agent, a preservative, a fungicide and an ingredient to control the pH of the composition and thereby inhibit corrosion of any metal surface to which the composition is applied.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,897 discloses a cover layer material on a basis of a matting or fabric which is especially for the production of gypsum boards and polyurethane hard foam boards. The cover layer material has a coating on one side which comprises 70% to 94% powdered inorganic material, such as calcium carbonate, and 6% to 30% binder. In addition, thickening agents and cross-linking agents are added and a high density matting is used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,238 discloses a fire resistant thermal insulating composite structure comprised of a mixture of from about of 50% to 94% by weight of inorganic microfibers, particularly glass, and about 50% to 6% by weight of heat resistant binding agent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,243 discloses a fire barrier fabric comprising a substrate formed of corespun yarns and a coating carried by one surface of the substrate. The coating comprises a carbonific compound, a catalyst and a source of a non-flammable gas. The coating additionally comprises thickening agents and blowing agents.
Many different coating compositions have been formulated over the years but often such compositions would bleed through substrates, such as fiberglass substrates, if the substrates were coated on just one side, unless the compositions had a high binder content and/or included viscosity modifiers to enhance the viscosity of the coating composition. To prevent bleed through, such coating compositions sometimes had their viscosity increased by blowing or whipping air into the compositions. Although such blown compositions did not bleed through to the other side of mats such as fiberglass mats, the raw material costs for the compositions were high because of the numbers of constituent elements involved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,257, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a structural article having a coating which includes only two major constituents, while eliminating the need for viscosity modifiers, for stabilizers or for blowing. The structural article of U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,257 is made by coating a substrate having an ionic charge with a coating having essentially the same iconic charge. The coating consists essentially of a filler material and a binder material. By coating the substrate with a coating having essentially the same ionic charge, the patentee developed a zero bleed through product while using only two major ingredients in the coating and eliminating the need for costly and time consuming processing steps such as blowing. Structural articles may thus be produced having a low binder content and no viscosity modifiers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,257 issued to Elk Corporation of Dallas, the assignee of the present application. Elk produces a product in accordance with the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,257 which is marketed as VersaShield®.
As indicated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,257, VersaShield® has many uses. However, it has been found that the products of U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,257 are unable to provide a satisfactory fabric material because they lack adequate drapability characteristics. The applicant has discovered, however, that by including clay as a filler component in the coating of the article, a fire resistant fabric material may be produced which has satisfactory flexibility, pliability and drapability characteristics.